Family First

With the wedding being only two weeks away, you would think that would be the only thing on my mind, and until Sunday night that was pretty much true. The phone call from my mom I got that night would end up all my wedding worries, and it made me revaluate what’s really important in life.

On Sunday afternoon my mom and dad went on a walk, and only about 1/4 mile into their walk my dad started feeling sick. His chest was tight, he was having a hard time breathing, and he even vomited. He thought he could just walk off the pain, but it became a little too much. With that my mom told him to she would go and get the car, and pick him up from that part of the trail they were walking. While my mom was getting the car, a cop stopped and was checking if everything was ok with my dad. My dad said he would be fine, but the cop was nice enough to wait with my dad till my mom came around with the car.

While waiting for my mom, a nurse happen to also be walking on the trail and looked at my dad and knew that something was wrong. She suggested that my dad really should go to the hospital, and with that they called an ambulance. 

Once at the hospital, he was rushed in to surgery. We later found out that he had a heart attack and that 2 of the arteries in his heart were 100% blocked and another was 80-90% blocked. During the surgery the doctors opened one of the 100% blocked arteries while leaving the other as is.

My dad was in the UIC Sunday night, all of Monday and Tuesday. Seeing my dad Monday morning with all those tubes coming out him was very scary. They had him huge oxygen mask over his face, so he really couldn’t talk. Just see him lying there brought tears to my eyes because I knew that he was really sick and in pain.

My dad has been so excited about me getting married, and I know he really wants to walk me down that aisle. Thought of him not making it to the wedding was something I tried not to let myself think about, but I couldn’t help it.

Wednesday afternoon he was taken out of ICU and put into a regular room. When I saw him on Wednesday night he was pretty much back to his normal self.

This morning, he went in for another surgery to open up the other two arteries. I’m happy to report the surgery went well. The hospital is going to keep him in ICU just for tonight, and he maybe released as early as tomorrow.

You don’t realize how important people are in your life until they are almost (or actually are) taken away from you.  I would tell everyone out there; make sure you make the time for the people that you love. We all get busy, but in the end it’s the relationships you form while on this earth that really matter. Having a nice wedding will be great, but having your family and friends there to share in your special day is what is really important.

(Picture from 1990- I'm in the red tshirt)

Please keep my dad in your prays, and I’ll be sure to post another update soon.